Every now and then, a movie sequel is released and you can’t help think to yourself ANOTHER ONE?

The original ‘The Fast and the Furious’ was WAAAAY back in 2001. Starring Paul Walker (Possible spoilers ahead but hey it’s 16 years old), as an under cover cop in the world of street racing. His job was to go deep into the scene and find out who was responsible or stealing thousands of various electronic items, most of them so old now, most kids wont even understand the plight of having a TV 52″ DEEP! It also starred Vin Diesel in a tank top. The film was OK, the racing was OK. For me it did what it was supposed to. It gave you an entertaining action film that was fun and exciting.

SInce then we’ve had seven sequels with the latest being Fast and Furious 8 (Also known as Fate of the Furious in the USA). Each sequel followed a similar set of themes. Fast cars, high-speed stunts, mediocre storylines, Vin Diesel in a tank top and scantily clad women. You knew that when a new movie in the series came out, you kind of knew what you were getting.

In my opinion, things changed with ‘Fast Five’. With all the previous entries, it included everything that Fast and Furious movies had before, but it introduced a new character of ‘Luke Hobbs’ played by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (Another fan of wearing a vest, so he fit right in!) and his presence along with a half decent storyline made it feel like one of the best of the series so far. The standards and the hollywood star power kept rising with Fast and Furious 6 and seven with the inclusion of Luke Evans, Jason Statham and Kurt Russell.

Fast and the Furious 8 once again continues the usual The Fast and the Furious pattern including Vin Diesel in a tank top but they have turned the action up to 11. The story goes that after the events of Furious 7, Dom and Letty are living happily ever after in Cuba. While on a morning stroll, Dom stops to help a damsel in distress get her car started. That kicks off a chain of events, which leads to Dom turning is back on ‘Family’ and helping world-famous hacker ‘Cipher’. Confused and upset as to why Dom would do such a thing, the usual crew are tasked by ‘Mr Nobody’ of finding Cipher and her new lap dog Torretto.

Like I said, they have found a formulae with these movies and Fast 8 follows it to a tee and while providing the usual car chases and action, it’s as if they have tried to create the most ridiculous, logic ignoring, building breaking, city destroying stunts they could think of and stuck them in a 90 minute movie. I remember more than one occasion I saw something on-screen and turned to my cinema going friend and shook my head in disbelief BUT if you wanted realism and you’ve seen any of the previous movies, you know you wont find it in this world.

Yes the movie is over the top, yes the stunts are ridiculous, yes the acting is pretty wooden, yes the word family is used 584 times and yes there’s already talks of a sequel but if you are a fan of the franchise, then I’m confident you’ll get a kick out of this movie. If you’ve never seen a Fast and the Furious movie before then going to see the eighth movie might not be the best, but you’ll still find the movie good fun and the scenes with Jason Statham and a baby is nearly worth the ticket stub on its own.

One other thing this and the other recent Fast and the Furious movies have done is taken us to some beautiful places in the world and F8 doesn’t disappoint. The cinematography and the direction of the movie is really good and the action sequences, especially the prison scene with Johnson and Statham adds to the ridiculous but awesomeness that runs through this film.

Fast and the Furious 8 or Fate of the Furious, whatever you call it, is definitely worth your time and I look forward to the adventures of Dom and his crew in any future installments.

If you liked this review or this movie, leave me a comment below and tell me what YOU think.